President Obama is offering up $1.6 trillion in revenue increases and $2.4 trillion in spending cuts. So he's already giving up 60% of what the Republicans want, which is more than fair when fairness should actually mean 50-50.
Taxes are going up on the wealthiest 2%. That argument is over. The President's side won it when they won the election carrying every battleground state to victory but one.
The Senate has already passed the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts on 98% of everybody else including small businesses. Every day the House obfuscates on dealing with this as a direct fact of the election outcome is another day wasted for them.
If John Boehner and Mitch McConnell don't want to see sequester cuts biting a chunk out of the defense budget, they'll do what's good for them now instead of carrying on with their dog and pony show.
Some form of the Dream Act appears like it's going to pass and it looks like there are enough Republicans who actually want to cut into the Hispanic vote instead of continuing to tow a line where the GOP is unfriendly to every demographic apart from old white farts.
There ought to be a good $500 billion in corporate welfare cuts made over 10 years, but I think the U.S. government on both sides is too chickenshit to do it. Shame, because big oil and pharma and other multi-nationals don't deserve and don't need the help.
On Social Security, benefits should be significantly cut for people like Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Mitt Romney, and other 1%'ers who don't need them. America's too chickenshit to do that, too.
A true liberal President would walk into the negotiation wanting to repeal the Reagan Tax Cuts on the wealthy, letting taxes on the top 1% go from 35% to 50%. And THEN settle for a compromise where taxes on those folks are 42.5% with incentives and credits only if you invest in job growth in America. Teabagger dingbat know-nothings should be so lucky that this President is a true centrist with a center-right philosophy in the overall when it comes to this stuff instead of being a red-blooded liberal.
I imagine the retirement age will go to 67, which is stupid. How the hell do you ask a career waitress to hold off 2 more years? Or a lifelong construction guy? People with real physical jobs will be penalized by this if it passes.
I imagine the President will scale back unemployment benefits from the 99-weeker people, and it's probably the time to do it with more and more people entering the workforce, even if it's not as fast as we'd like.
There ought to be transaction fees on the Wall Street types for having the privilege of gambling the country's wealth. I fear America is too chickenshit to do that, too.
A liberal President would go into the negotiations calling for a doubling of the capital gains tax from 15% to 30% because folks who only make their money from money should at least pay a tax rate that is comparable to that of a plumber or a secretary. And THEN the liberal President should accept a rate hike of between 5-7%. Again, the Republicans should be so lucky that this President is more of a center-right guy on this stuff than Bill Clinton was (he raised capital gains by over 25% for a few years and then brought it back down).
A bunch of loopholes should close on offshoring the country's wealth and actually being incentivized to do so. I imagine there will be consensus on some of those items on the menu.
There you have it. For some good reading on this stuff, find the Progressive Caucus proposals. It's the best overall deficit reduction stuff coupled with investment and tax reforms around that benefit the most Americans while hurting the least. I say that from a business standpoint, not a political one.
